Medical devices are an important part of the health industry and are responsible for the health of many people. Many life-saving procedures can be performed today because of advances in medical device technology. Stents, for instance, are examples of medical devices that are used in a variety of medical procedures. When stents are used in the context of the vascular system, they can prevent, open, or counter act the flow of blood in situations where a patient's vasculature is weak or blocked. Stents are not limited, however, to the vasculature system and can be employed in many systems and circumstances.
The production of medical devices such as stents can be a complicated process. Producing the stent includes forming struts that are arranged to provide strength and flexibility to the stent. The struts can be formed, for example, by laser cutting.
Once the stent is formed, the stent needs to be polished. The stent is polished in order to remove the rough or sharp edges that may remain on the stent and to smooth the surface of the stent. As one can image, a stent with rough or sharp edges may have adverse effects if introduced into a patient's vasculature.
Electropolishing is an example of a method used to polish stents. Electropolishing is a common process that is usually performed by immersing the stents in an electrolytic bath. In conventional systems, however, maintaining a consistent surface finish can be difficult.
More specifically, electropolishing a stent often requires contact between the stent and an electrode. The contact points between the electrode and the stent surface, however, impedes electropolishing at the contact points. As a result, the stent may be polished at a different rate at or near the contact points compared to other areas of the stent. Ideally, a device being electropolished will remain immersed since it minimizes the risk of contamination to the stent surface. However, when manufacturing devices such as stents, it may be difficult to keep the stent immersed for the entire polishing process since there is also a need to rotate the stents throughout the electropolishing process. By rotating the stent, the contact area between the stent surface and the anode conductor is varied, which ensures that the entire stent surface will be polished. Existing methods of producing this rotation while the stent remains immersed are insufficient because the pressure required to clamp a stent on an anode and provide good electrical contact can be excessive and can result in damage to the stent structure when the stent is rotated.